Summary

Newly offered in injection-molded plastic by Bronco Models out of China, is a wide-tracked sWS Utility Halftrack sporting a 60cm infrared searchlight and accompanying night-vision IR equipment.

This "new" kit is actually a reissue of the high-quality Great Wall (Lion Roar) kit from a few years back. Aside from the box art and the color of the plastic, the main difference between the two kits is that Bronco includes a complete engine assembly. At some point GW introduced these parts as an aftermarket set you had to purchase separately for their sWS kits.

The Product

I love brass, it complements plastic models so well that I use it on almost all my builds. This set covers several deficiencies specific to the Gunship version found in the old but excellent Monogram/Revell AC-47 plus minor generic items. Set includes upgrades for; the tailwheel bay, window vents for the mini-guns, gas-caps, main landing bulkheads and access panels, engine ignition harness, oil cooler screens, prop governors, exhaust pipe embellishments, brake lines, new main landing gear cross braces, tail cap off plate, several smaller panels, lots of antennas and a very cool boarding ladder.

Eduard offers their photoetch in a couple different formats for those that haven’t had the pleasure. They offer the Big Ed sets which are full meal which include multiple frets, masking sets and many, many parts for those that want the ultimate detail on their kits. They also offer the sets in groups which include multiple frets for specific areas such as interiors, wheel wells or exteriors. Lastly, they offer “Zoom” sets which are one fret of colored photoetch to address, usually, cockpits. This set is one of the latter and addresses the kind of barren cockpit in HobbyBoss 1/48 A-6E TRAM kit which is already a wonderful kit. The set consists of one colored photoetch fret with excellent instructions which included a multipart instrument panel, multiple parts for the ejection seats including belts and other parts to address the side instrument panels and boxes.

In the last several years, Eduard has had great ideas by taking well done kits from certain manufacturers, adding their beautiful photoetch, masking sets and Brassin resin to it and issuing it as a complete set. This is one of those kits and it is a winner! What you get in the package is Hasegawa’s excellent 1/48th scale F-86 Sabre with a masking set for the wheels and canopy. Also included are excellent resin castings for the ejection seat and two frets of photoetch. One is colorized and is used to detail the cockpit with seat belts, multipart instrument panels, and other small parts. The second fret is not colored and contains replacement parts for the canopy deck and details, more seat details, and other smaller bits. Also included is an excellent color instruction guide and decals for five different markings:

This complete die-cut adhesive mask set is "just what the doctor ordered" to cure the masking blues. Especially if you’re building the Revell/Monogram AC-47 Gunship. This must have set includes: wheel mask, landing light mask, observation dome mask, windscreen panel mask, and exterior cabin window mask. The masking media used for this set is the typical high-quality product we’ve seen and used for years (very similar to Tamiya tape). The die-cut patterns fit perfectly to their respective proper location. They’re easily peeled away from the backing paper, and repositioning is just as easy. Preparation before painting is key to a nice looking model and masking plays a vital role in this preparation. The clean sharp edges of perfectly-fitting masking are hard to beat. After placement of the mask, I lightly burnish them with a rounded toothpick to prevent any leakage.